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Missouri Compromise
People in the North wanted more free states, people in the south wanted more slave states. So in compromise, Missouri entered the United States as a slave state and Maine entered as a free one. The Compromise also drew an imaginary line at 36 degrees 30 minutes North latitude, separating the Louisiana Territory. This contributed to the Civil War becuase it divided the country into a very specific North and South: no slavery vs. slavery. -
Abolitionist Movement
The goal of the Abolitionist Movement was the immediate emancipation of all slaves and the end of racial discrimination and segregation. The people fighting for this were men and women, white or black. Only when the Fifteenth Amendment extending male suffrage to African-Americans was passed did the society declare its mission completed. This movement led to the civil war because people started rebelling against what was accepted - slavery. -
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Abolitionist Movement
The goal of the Abolitionist Movement was the immediate emancipation of all slaves and the end of racial discrimination and segregation. The people fighting for this were men and women, white or black. When the Fifteenth Amendment extending male suffrage to African-Americans was passed, the society declare its mission completed. -
The Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was a piece of legislation proposed by David Wilmot at the end of the Mexican-American War. If passed, it would have outlawed slavery in territory acquired by the United States as a result of the war. Wilmot spent two years fighting for his plan, though all attempts failed. However, the intenssity of the debate about the Proviso was the first real talk about sucession, which was a huge factor contributing the Civil War, therefore making this a contributing factor too. -
Fugitive Slave Act
This law was passed as part of the Compromise of 1850. It provided southern slaveholders with legal weapons to capture slaves who had escaped to the free states. This made the Underground Railroad crucial, because slaves could be punished, possibly by death, for running away. This led to the Civil War because it made slavery even worse even if an African American was free, therefore making more people want to stop it. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
This book, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is an antislavery novel depicting the cruel reality of slavery. It was a best selling book and helped fuel the abolitionis movement in the 1850s. Abraham Lincoln famously says when he meets Stowe, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war" because her book led to a realization of how horrible slavery was and why it needed to be stopped. -
John Brown and Bleeding Kansas
This is the period violence during the settling of the Kansas Territory. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska act overturned the Missouri Compromise, letting residents decide whether and area would become a free or slave state. People from the North fled to Kansas in order to influence this decision. John Brown led the abolitionists as both side fought for control. This hightened conflict about slavery led to more tension between the two sides and therefore to the Civil War. -
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John Brown and Bleeding Kansas
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Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott went to trial to sue for his freedom in 1847. 10 years later, the Court decided that all people of African descent, whether they were slaves or free, could not be citizens of the United States, and therefore could not sue for their rights in federal court. Also that the federal government did not have the power to prohibit slavery in its territories. Therefore, Dred Scott remained a slave. This led to the civil war because a lot of the polulation disagreed with this decision. -
Election of 1860
The 19th presidential election, between Replublican Abraham Lincoln and Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge was the impetus for the outbreak of the Civil War. When Lincoln won, South Carolina Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas suceeded from the Union because Lincoln didn't like slavery, and although he wasn't going to eradicate Slavery from the South, people felt threatened. This separated the country into two specific parts: the Union and the Confederacy. -
Southern Sucession
Following the election of 1860 (some states beforehand though), 11 Southern states suceeded from the Union and formed the Confederacy. They didn't like Lincoln's decisions and felt that the Government had no right to tell them what to do. One, among many arguments, was that he Union still had some forts on Confederate land that they refused to move, so on April 12 1961, the Confederates attacked one, Fort Sumter. This was the beginning of the war. -
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Souther Sucession
